My Bloody Sweetheart
by Benjamin Sebastien Garwin
Summary: When the Crimson Reaper met The Maven of Strings...


As the bugle rang, we knew it ...30 seconds until the battle was to begin...Blood had to be spilled, I had to be fed...Victory was to be ours. I still see the shade, that frenetic memory of Dmitri in the door way, the only thing separating my team from the man slaughter before us.

Of course my Summoner was one with rather odd tastes when it came to friends and allies... As I leaned against the wall, I looked around observing my 4 comrades in arms...well...some of them we're in arms...

An overgrown shrimp whom I presumed to be another champion, albeit not very worthy of such a title, was nibbling on an Asians' guy's leather jacket. If I were him I would have used that sword of his to turn that abomination into sushi.

But all he did was laugh and ask "Wuju chew something else Kog?"

It's sleazy carapace oozed slime which made me remember of the food they fed us in the orphanage, right before I left for the mountains where I became….what I am. But let's not talk about that….

The samurai warrior… his very presence inspired me, elegance, grace…. Just like me, only he used it as self defense…lacking my own murderous intents. I respected him, but he was disgusted of me, what I was, my actions, everything that bore my sign. Ah...what a soft hearted fool... but a soft heart with strong pumping power nonetheless.

On the other hand I admired the comical jester as he tried to impress some blonde, but what a blonde….. one who will forever echo in my memory. Her hair we're like a field of flowers in a spring day…her eyes…..sapphires sparkling in the dim light…her lips…oh her lips…

The jester's failed attempts of juggling poisoned shives, did not impress her. Not even after accidental y dropping one on her "etwahl" , the name of her instrument if I recall correctly, but it didn't hinder the tones of her music, and they were actually pleasing... . The blonde was sitting in a dark corner of the room, playing her instrument with such grace that I wondered whether I could kill her under given circumstances. I remembered another beautiful girl just as her, whom I visited in my journeys before reaching the League... she was absolutely delicious, but this one allured me in some bizarre way…. I could not feel the same murderous urge I felt with previous women.

I took my eyes of the lady and watched again in an ensemble and started wondering.

I wondered what motivated them... the samurai was, fighting to avenge his people killed by my Kingdome, he seemed to emanate an aura of honor, something I had before my...scarlet days...

The shrimp... I think it was just hungry... The jester... from what I understood from his conversations with the lady maven that the opposite's team consisted of Twitch, who owed the jester 20.000 gold from a gambling gone wrong...what an idiocracy... a mobster rat owing money to a jester...

But what of the maven...what was she in this battle for...It was for my curiosity that I had to find out.

Moments later, the Enchanted Voice announced: WELCOME TO THE SUMMONER'S RIFT! It seemed that it was just another battle to prove myself worthy of my title...The Crimson Reaper!

I chose the maven as my lane partner, while the samurai went alone in the middle, and the joker went on the other lane with the giant shrimp, although I think he was actually running away from it to avoid being eaten.

I reached the corner waiting to see who I was up against...

"Stay here!" I ordered the maven "You don't look like you'd have the killer instinct in you, so stay behind and try to look pretty!"

She didn't even lift her eyes to look at me, all she did is continue singing that magnificent instrument, filling me with more power….I actually felt a drop of shame in me for talking to her that way.

"I hope you'll keep this tune up for the entire fight, won't you?" as asked her, admitting to myself I found her rather pleasant and her music actually useful.

The truth was that until that day I only enjoyed the music of victim's last breaths and blood curling screams. This was different...something other's would perceive as "naturally normal".

A minute past...two...10...where the hell was the opponent? Suddenly, I heard the music stop, I turned around, and saw the maven stunned, and some grotesque looking mad scientist hitting her delicate flesh with a big 6 iron wrench. I saw her bruises, and found them familiar to those orphanage administrators applied to me... but this...this was wrong...I had to intervene!

A quick Transfusion and two strikes from my clawed gloves sent that yam headed gnome back into the woods. The maven rose up and healed herself with soothing music which materialized itself into a warm light.

"I asked you to be careful!" I yelled at her.

I for one did not care about her well being, but it would have been harder to face eventual multiple champions alone...and as much as I like to see blood, I hate it when it's my own.

Indeed Hemomancy is a two bladed sword; you give some of your blood to spill some of the opponents.

"Sorry Vladimir...thank you..." said she...approaching me, stopping the music. She lifted her gaze upon me and stunned me with those sapphire blue eyes.

My own crimson eyes wanted to be the object of her sight...but she was looking at my lips...she approached and she kissed me. When I opened my eyes, I realized it wasn't a dream, but my fangs had bitten into her lip, causing her to bleed, letting a drop of blood trickling down her chin.

"It's ok" she said, and teleported back to the base.

I did the same , but not to follow her of course, to fill myself with potions and items...I had enough for a Warmog's.

Back at the base I met the other champions.

The jester looked pretty beaten up, with an arrow stuck into his derriere and the shrimp with half a minion hanging between his teeth.

However, the samurai was nowhere to be seen, nor was the maven. where could she have been?

But moments later he came, beaten up, all bloody and wounded with the maven hanging on his shoulder.

"Did you manage to kill someone?" with mercyless disregard towards the beaten up maven.

"Yes, I managed to whack the archer... but I like the souvenir, he said pointing to the arrow still stuck in his rear."It reminds me how glad I was to get rid of such a pain in the BUTT. Get it? Because the arrow is in my...

I giggled since I did not want to trigger any violent response from the clown. He was known to kill people just because they missed the punch line from his joke. So did the shrimp.

"What happened, what's with the long face?" asked the jester looking at the samurai and the maven.

The samurai lifted his head, with his goggles broken and stained with blood and almost without a breath muttered "that barbarian king nearly tore me to pieces but Sona healed me, only to be cut down herself...we barely managed to escape."

So her name was Sona...that's how I first found out what her name was...

As my comrades were busy healing and discussing abound various battle strategies, I looked beyond the middle turret . Suddenly everything went cold and pitch black. But beyond the nothingness I could see the shadow of Dmitri, my master, the one who presented me with the fine art of hemomancy..

"Dmitri?" Vladimir inquired, incredulous, "but, master, you are gone. I killed you."

The figure threw back his head, howling with laughter. "I cannot be gone, Vladimir. I am a part of you." As if in response, the monk's body dissolved into a fine red mist. The metallic smell of blood filled the air. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, the warm vapor bathing me in its welcome embrace.

The sound of sharp, labored breaths woke me from my reverie.

"I see what you are," the monk continued, "You are a harbinger, my child. A Crimson Reaper, come to collect." He smiled grimly, a peal of laughter following.

"You are now my charge, Vladimir," replied the aging figure, smiling. "Do not disappoint me."

I stared deeply into my mentor's eyes. The sight made my veins run ice. I had killed this man. I had taken his blood. And Dmitri had asked me to do it; he had threatened me with death if I refused. The room around me went even blacker, leaving me alone with the phantom of my master. The monk folded his arms across his chest. "Why do you want to join the League, Vladimir?" asked Dmitri expectantly.

"I wish to bring honor to my name and to hone my craft," Answered I immediately.

The apparition before cracked a bemused smiled. "Why do you want to join the League, Vladimir?" it repeated.

"To fight for the glory of Noxus, my homeland," I replied, hesitant.

Dmitri's amusement vanished. He looked displeased. "Why do you want to join the League, Vladimir?" he echoed.

I lifted the veil of deceit told him the truth... and answered slowly this time, "I must kill."

The old monk nodded. "How does it feel, exposing your mind?" he asked.

And I replied with great detachment "Liberating, really,". As if in response, the door behind flew open, bathing me in the dim light of the flares in our base light. I was alone in my mind again.

What was Dmitri trying to warn me...? Suddenly the darkness came again... this time the red mist materialized into Dmitri and grabbed Sona, driving his hand through her chest, impaling her, holding her pulsing heart...

She was nothing more than another human to me...or so I supposed, yet I disapproved with this otherwise fantastic vision. I slapped myself, counting on my claws to slash my cheek, in order to cause me enough pain to wake up permanently from this..."daymare"

She was dangerous...my mind was clouded by her music...she was damping my killer instinct...she was softening me...she had to die! But how could I kill my own team mate...with the other 3 right there...

I fell into meditation...trying to figure out what to do...and then it struck me...I had to do it while I was in the lane with her!

They all healed, armed themselves with whatever items they came for, and returned to our lanes.

The battle itself from that point onwards we in a very unidirectional way, the jester having killed the rat, the shrimp having eaten the barbarian's helmet and spitting acid in his face, and the Samurai giving Katarina a second scar on that pretty little face of hers.

I for one...well...let's say the inventor will find inventing a tad harder without arms...and an eye.

His partner, a mangy werewolf went head to head against me, saying that he didn't like the superiority of "vampires" in "Underworld", whatever that may be

The ravenous beast knocked me down, charging towards Sona.

As he was mercilessly striking her, he stopped, then he started dancing and seconds later, fell dead to the ground.

What did you do? I asked suspiciously.

"Crescendo, they said that music soothes the savage beast. My music puts them to eternal rest.

"I'm starting to like your style...beauty that hides an innocent sense of sadism." I said with a flattering tone.

"No different from you from what I've seen" she replied with a sense of blushing in her cheek.

Oh and what a blush it was...what sweet blood might have been coursing through her cheeks...

Oh course this intimate, rather romantic moment was interrupted by a massive pile of green ooze raining from the sky...

"INCOMING!" yelled the shrimp with its guiros voice.

"A bit late for that" I replied sarcastically to the idiot shrimp.

"Kog'Maw sorry, Kog'Maw think you yummy barbarian guy..." he said bowing down like a pathetic puppy who had just been bad in front of its master.

Of course this had all been just a minor setback, as we knew now that there were 4 more enemies left.

"One down, 4 to go" I yelled victoriously, trying to put a stop to his self pity.

"make that 2 to go", said the samurai with blood, not of his own, covering his elegant leather jacket. "Only Twitch is still out there." he continued.

Hm...Twitch...

My brief moment of thought was suddenly stopped by a horrific image. In a split second Yi, the jester and Sona were all brought down by a volley of fast travelling, armor piercing poisoned arrows.

It was Twitch.

"MAMMA ALWAYS SAID IF YOU HAVE BAD AIM...SPRAY AND PRAY!" yelled the hysterical rat with a gaze as if engulfed by rabies.

"You bastard!" I yelled, performing a sanguine pool to suck him dry, then transfusing some blood, but as I was about to strike him down, a tree broke down between him and me, being rotten from twitch spray of toxins, which putrefied the tree's trunk.

As the rat cowardly went away, I attended to my comrades. They were all dying from he poison, so I took them and teleported to the base. I took them back and waited for them to heal, feeling remorse for not acting faster to kill the forsaken rat.

Fully healed and with only one enemy champion to fear, we marched in the center lane towards the Nexus, plowing through waves of minions.

We had reached their base. The Nexus was ours...But something was missing...

Driven by deep thoughts I left on a stroll in the forests, followed by Sona...I had my share of kills for the day... so I decided to go meditate. Sona started chanting a beautiful tune, more wonderful than anything else I've ever heard before.

I wanted to thank her but suddenly I Felt a sting , my entire vision became dim. I felt a metallic taste in my mouthy...that familiar taste...of BLOOD.

I felt my knees too weak to bare my weight and the poison spreading through my body.. I fell to the ground...seeing only the hairy shade coming towards me. I felt the smell of sewers and heard the sound of a stretching crossbow , probably the one that would send the final arrow through my already maimed body to finish me off, I closed my eyes, but not until i watched Sona looking at me horrified of what had happened.

I waited for the coup de grace, awaiting to meet my comrade Dmitri on the other side...but certainly not the place of light.

I kept my eyes closed and muttered "I failed you Dmitri!". Next thing I felt was again the taste of blood in my mouth, but not mine. My eyes we're engulfed in warmth, and when i opened them, I saw only light. I fainted.

What seemed to have been only an infinity later. I woke up. Familiar faces were staring at me. It was the samurai...the shrimp...the jester and...SONA!...

"Wuju mind explaining why you tried to kill Sona?" asked the samurai hesitantly, putting his blade to my throat.

"Yi, it's ok...we've won...he saved my life before that, and besides, I let him do it!" intervened Sona to my aid

Do what? I asked in my mind.

"And tried to take it away! He's more loony than me" giggled the jester "We should waste him"

"No...Why waste him, let's eat him!" gurgled the shrimp monster.

"Serenity is what brought us together, serenity shall guide us now. I forgive him. He saved my life more times than he tried to kill me. It's up to me to decide his fate, and his fate is to live on to bring glory to the battlefield for many years to come."

It seems that as Twitch ambushed the two of us , I was severely hurt, but just as I was about to die, Sona put her neck to my mouth, and I instinctively sucked her blood, but she only gave me enough to prevent me from dying.. Still left with enough power in her, she killed twitch with a crescendo and a hymn of valor

These words were strange for me. Mercy I think was the word...

In all my travels and bloody encounters I only met fear...anger and some hints of retaliations, but never forgiveness and mercy...who was this woman? Was the eternal veil of mystery to forever surround her?

I stood up on my own two feet and wiped the dirt of my scarlet suit, only to knee in front of the maven...MY maven!

"Sona...I thank you...I..."

but she interrupted me, taking my mouth to hers, and kissing...

" I hear wedding bells!" laughed out the jester

"Wedding bells mean cake?" asked the shrimp enthusiastically

"yes...cake" replied Yi smilling.

Who would have believed...The Crimson Reaper and the Maven of Strings...?

Stranger than Katarina and Garen...or Tryndamere with Ashe...


End file.
